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NEW DELHI: It was
the speed and spontaneity with which the Indian Army launched its attacks that
took the enemy by surprise, leading to their victory in the 1999 Kargil war,
says Lieutenant General Mohinder Puri. He headed the 8 Mountain Division.

Gripping accounts of
valour and fortitude from the battle front of the war between India and
Pakistan have been recollected in a new book penned by Puri.

The book titled
'Kargil: Turning the Tide', which was launched here on Monday evening, is a
first-hand narrative of the operations of 8 Mountain Division, which was tasked
to evict the enemy from the Drass-Mushkoh Sector during 'Operation Vijay'.

"We surprised
the enemy with the speed and ferocity of our movement. It was the speed with
which we conducted the operations and took them totally by surprise, this was
one of the reasons why we succeeded in evicting the enemy," he said.

Recounting one such
incident, the then Major-General Puri said how after several failed attempts to
capture the pivotal Tololing peak, he had asked his men to attack again the
next evening, but by the time he reached his headquarters, India had already
conquered the strategic feature.

The Tololing, a
dominant position overlooking Srinagar- Leh Highway (NH-1D), was so strategic
that after it was conquered it was only a matter of six days for Indian troops
to notch up a string of successes by evicting well-entrenched intruders in four
nearby outposts.

He said, Colonel MB
Ravindranath, Commanding Officer of the 2 Rajputana Rifles, radioed him,
camping some 20-km away and said in a terse message, "Sir, I'm on Tololing
top."

"After I was
informed that we have not been able to capture Tololing, I just asked them to
consolidate and in the evening I said, 'have a go.' By the time I reached the
headquarters, I was told that we have captured Tololing.

"I spoke to
Ravi and when I asked him what had happened he said he just saw a window of
opportunity and there he launched the attack and captured the feature which was
until then with the enemy," Puri said.

Puri's division was
responsible for spearheading the Army's offensive in the Kargil sector which
restored the sanctity of the Line of Control by capturing Tololing, Tiger Hill
and Point 4875.

General (retd) VP
Malik, who himself has authored a book titled "Kargil - From Surprise To
Victory" in 2006 on the same subject inaugurated the event at Manekshaw
Centre here.

"Lots of books
have been written about the Kargil War and most of them are hearsay. There are
only two authentic books I can mention, one is General Puri's and I will take
credit for the second one.

"While I have
dealt with the war at a macro level, General Puri's book talks about the
several battles fought. After all, there is no war without these battles,"
Malik said.

Indian Army
personnel allegedly gang-raped a 14-year-old girl Monday in a moving train in
the eastern state of Jharkhand, according to local reports. Police in Jharkhand
reportedly detained one of the men and said the other two would be arrested
soon.

The girl ran away
from her home Sunday and was travelling alone on a train bound for the town of
Amritsar, in the northwestern state of Punjab. Her family alerted police of her
disappearance, who informed railway authorities. The officials identified the
girl -- who was seen boarding a traincar reserved for troops -- on surveillance
camera footage, the Times of India reported.

Railway police
rescued the girl, who later said in a complaint that one of the soldiers
offered her liquor and two others raped her after she was drunk. The man who
offered the girl liquor was arrested and the other two were absconding, DNA
newspaper reported. The girl was scheduled to undergo a medical test to confirm
the rape allegations.

"Prima facie,
it seems the allegations are correct. We have identified the two accused and
interrogation of the arrested person is likely to provide further leads. It
seems that the crime occurred soon after the train left Howrah," Asim
Vikrant Minj, Dhanbad city superintendent of railway police, reportedly said.

In recent months,
women's safety in India has become a national debate following a series of
violent rapes that received massive media coverage. And, earlier this month,
the country's judicial system was in the spotlight after the Supreme Court
ordered a man, who was among several people convicted of a violent rape on a
moving bus in New Delhi in December 2012, was to be released after he served
time in a juvenile detention facility.

New Delhi, Dec. 29:
In Prime Minister Narendra Modi's showpiece "Make in India" project
to be opened this Sunday, a public sector firm has beaten Anil Ambani's
Reliance Defence that was lobbying to make Russian helicopters.

Moscow announced
last night that the Russian state arms export agency, Rosoboronexport, and the
chopper-maker, Rostec, have chosen the Indian defence undertaking Hindustan
Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to make the Kamov 226t "Sergei" light utility
helicopters for the military.

India's army and air
force have a requirement of 200 such reconnaissance and surveillance
helicopters immediately to replace the Cheetah and Chetak machines that
currently undertake the task. The initial order is estimated to be worth $1
billion.

Most of the Cheetah
and Chetak helicopters are more than 40 years old and have a high rate of
accidents. Earlier this year, the wives and widows of military officers who
fly/have flown the Cheetahs and Chetaks urged the government to replace them.

The total order for
Sergeis could go up to 400 with the navy also projecting the requirement.

The process of
replacement has taken more than 10 years. The Prime Minister, who returned from
Russia last week, is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of a HAL facility to
make helicopters at Tumkur, 100km from Bangalore, this Sunday.

"The agreement
with India is the result of the long work with our Indian partners," the
CEO of Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, said in a statement distributed by Russian news
agencies.

An Indian government
source said "the Russians chose HAL".

Ambani's Reliance
Defence has announced plans to make fighter planes, warships and submarines for
India's military. Ambani was part of a delegation of corporate leaders who were
in Moscow last week during Modi's visit.

Foreign ministry
spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted during the Moscow visit that this would be
the first "Make in India" project.

The Russian
statement said: "This is the first Russian-Indian high-tech project,
implemented by the Indian government within the framework of the 'Make in
India' programme."

In choosing HAL, the
Russians have selected the only company in the country that can show
infrastructure and partnership experience to build aircraft. HAL has been
partnering with Russia to build aircraft for decades from Russian semi and
completely knocked-down kits. It is currently turning out Sukhoi fighter
aircraft for a price that is considerably higher than their off-the-shelf cost,
government auditors have pointed out.

The defence ministry
has in the past thrice scrapped a global tender for light utility helicopters
on charges of corruption. In May this year, the Defence Acquisitions Council
chaired by Manohar Parrikar accepted the necessity of acquiring the Sergeis for
the armed forces.